Why 'boring' Buckinghamshire is England's most underrated county

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Telling people you hail from Buckinghamshire is like telling people you work in recruitment. It’s a conversation killer. Most people don’t really understand what recruitment consultants do, on a day-to-day basis at least. And since it’s obviously a tedious and dull line of work, they don’t really want to know. Similarly, Buckinghamshire’s exact location - and its chief draws - are a bit of a mystery. One of the Home Counties. Commuter belt. Boring. Isn’t Slough in Buckinghamshire?

We long to tell people we’re from Cornwall or Yorkshire. Even Essex would be an improvement. These are counties with proper identities. Beaches. Tea. TOWIE. But scratch beneath the surface and Buckinghamshire has landscapes, history and attractions to be reckoned with – and is deserving of wider appreciation.

There are some lifeless corners, of course. High Wycombe springs to mind. Its soulless centre saw it named Britain’s 9th “crappest” place to live back in 2013. “High Wycombe isn’t entirely bland,” argued one resident at the time. “It has a chair museum – because it used to fart out chairs like it now does hopelessness.” Aylesbury’s concrete core is equally hard to love. Then there’s Milton Keynes, which is big on roundabouts but woefully short on beauty. And what of Slough? You can’t blame us for that. It was historically part of Bucks, but in modern times was cunningly palmed off on neighbouring Berkshire.

But the real appeal of Bucks lies beyond its handful of big towns. It is the rolling hills and quintessentially English villages that make up the vast majority of its 724 square miles. The Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which the county shares with Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire, is the best place to start. This rural idyll, less than an hour by train from central London, is the Cotswolds without the crowds. Cottages of thatch, brick and flint flank village squares, with medieval churches and characterful pubs providing the centrepieces.

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Skirmett, Fingest and Frieth are all worth a look, but don’t miss impossibly peaceful Hambleden, with its babbling brook, old bakery (complete with Hovis sign), 14th century church, and the charming Stag and Huntsman pub, or Turville, home to the equally enticing Bull and Butcher, overlooked by Cobstone Windmill, which appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and whose 12th century church found fame in The Vicar of Dibley.

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Indeed, when it comes to appearances on both the big and small screen, Buckinghamshire is a contender for England’s most famous county. Midsomer Murders has been a regular visitor over the years, with dozens of villages and towns appearing in one or more of the tongue-in-cheek detective show’s 122 episodes. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves eschewed Sherwood Forest in favour of Burnham Beeches, Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell enjoyed a passionate evening at The Crown in Amersham during Four Weddings, and the training scenes from Band of Brothers took place in the Hambleden Valley, to name a few. Add Pinewood Studios to the reckoning and the number of films shot in Bucks leaps from hundreds to thousands.

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There is more countryside to admire beyond the Chilterns. Descend its steep chalk escarpment and you’ll find yourself in the Aylesbury Vale, a gently undulating expanse of empty roads and picturesque villages (Brill and Long Crendon are among the best; there’s even one called Quainton). It’s perfect cycling territory and summer sportives are ten a penny – try the Chiltern 100 for a serious challenge, or the Tour de Vale for something less arduous.

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Dotted around this green and pleasant land are scores of stately homes. Stowe House has sensational gardens; visitors can choose from three walking paths, Vice (with its garden of love), Virtue (home to a Temple of British Worthies) or Liberty. Vice is a key theme at Cliveden too; it was here that John Profumo spotted Christine Keeler frolicking naked in the swimming pool, an incident that set in motion events that concluded with a suicide and the downfall of the Macmillan government.

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Chequers, the PM’s country retreat, which has welcomed world leaders galore, is also within the county boundary (you can’t visit, but you can spy it walking the Ridgeway National Trail). Just as historically significant is Bletchley Park, the secret base for British codebreakers, including Alan Turing, during the Second World War.

Hedsor House, an Italianate-style mansion and former royal residence, and Waddesdon Manor, a fairytale, chateau-style country house built to show off the Rothschilds’ art collection, are other highlights.

There are waterside delights too. Two of England’s four longest rivers (the Thames and the Great Ouse) and the Grand Union Canal flow through Bucks, with the stretch from Remenham to Marlow (a culinary enclave that includes Tom Kerridge’s Hand and Flowers) providing one of southern England’s best river walks.

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Children are catered for. Roald Dahl lived in Great Missenden and its surroundings provided the backdrop for Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and Danny, the Champion of the World. The village is now home to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, where visitors can browse archives, memorabilia and photos. Visitors to the Bucks County Museum in Aylesbury, meanwhile, can check out the Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery to learn more about the inventions of Willy Wonka, investigate minibeasts inside the giant peach, and see the Twits’ upside down room.

Bekonscot is another gem for families. The world’s most venerable model village, found in Beaconsfield, offers a wonderful snapshot of England in the 1930s. As well as an extensive miniature railway, you'll spot old fashioned fun fairs, trams, coal mines, windmills and even a fox hunt.

We could go on – there’s rowing on Dorney Lake, history at Chiltern Open Air Museum, and sporting drama on the tarmac of Silverstone (which straddles the Bucks-Northamptonshire border).

It all adds up to an alluring combination. Hollywood movies, sex and scandal, old pubs, world politics, Michelin-starred dining, secret codebreakers and Formula One. Underappreciated, but with all that, how could Bucks possibly be dull?